Human Resource Management: Recruitment Process Issues and Improvements

This essay examines the recruitment challenges encountered by Wood and Grieve engineers, an Australian engineering consultancy firm. The study identifies issues such as reliance on online job postings, lack of document verification, and the use of unstructured interviews, which lead to the recruitment of less-qualified engineers. The essay highlights the importance of improving the recruitment process to enhance organizational performance. It suggests implementing green recruitment practices, improving communication strategies, and incorporating structured interviews and aptitude tests. The recommendations aim to ensure the selection of skilled candidates and improve the overall quality of the workforce. The essay references several research works to support its findings and recommendations.

Running head: HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Human Resource Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Issues and Challenges of Recruitment Process:...............................................................................2
Suitable approach to improve the process of Recruitment..............................................................4
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................5
Reference.........................................................................................................................................7

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Introduction
The aim of this current research based essay, is to identify the issues and challenges in
the recruitment process that are encountered by Wood and Grieve engineers, which is the small
scale Australian based engineering consultancy firm. It is the duty of the HR manager of the
organization to improve upon the existing recruitment process that can help them to select the
best eligible candidates for the job.
The essay will also recommend suitable approach that the company needs to implement
in order to improve upon their recruitment process. The advantages and drawbacks of the
recruitment process will also be discussed.
Issues and Challenges of Recruitment Process:
The quality of the workers and organizational performance of a company is entirely
dependent upon the recruitment and selection strategy, which are being implemented (Phillips &
Gully 2015). In the given case, the Wood and Grieve engineering firm has to face organizational
challenge due to poor caliber of the engineers, who are being recruited in a selection process.
The current method of recruitment of the company includes publishing of advertisement in
online job website, where details of job are being mentioned. Interested candidate apply through
the website and the HR manager selects few of the candidates, who are then invited for the
interview. The Engineering manager then conducts an unstructured interview in order to select
the perfect candidate for the job.
The research work of Fox (2015), has suggested that most of the companies are
dependent upon online advertisement for providing job description to all potential candidates.
The online platforms are also used by the interested candidates to apply for their desired jobs.

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Nevertheless, as the companies have to check all the documents of the candidates through online
portals, it may not be possible for them to verify that genuine documents provided by the
candidates. Communication issue is also one of the major challenges in this context that are
encountered by the recruiters. In the given case of Wood and Grieve engineering firm, there is no
policy of the HR to verify the genuineness of the documents provided by the candidates through
online portals.
The primary selection procedure is dependent upon an unstructured interview that is
being conducted by the engineering manager. It is important to mention in the context that
unstructured interview process is conducted without specific set of questions and is rather like an
interview, where the interviewers discuss relevant topic to the job with the interviewee. The
major issues that are encounter by the engineering firm in this process is due to the fact that there
are no specific judgmental criteria that the interviewer can use evaluate the capability of the
candidate (Kundu et al. 2015). It is also not possible to test the ability of the engineer which is
highly critical for the required job. Moreover as the unstructured interview do not usually have a
formal way of conversation; it is not possible to judge the official capability and communication
skills of the potential candidate.
In the whole selection process, the candidates do not have to engage in any form of
Aptitude Test, which is also an essential part of evaluating the capability of an engineer. Hence,
the overall selection and recruitment process has compromised up on the overall organizational
performance and the quality of skilled engineers, who are being recruited. The reputation of the
engineering firm is also at stake due to shortage of efficiency among the workers (Phillips &
Gully 2015).

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Suitable approach to improve the process of Recruitment
The research work of Yaseen (2016, p.79), related to best human resource practice within
an organization, have suggested about the importance of tracking the documents of the
employees that help to eliminate the cases related to fake documents being provided by the
candidates. It can also ensure that only the genuine and the skilled candidates will get the chance
to perform the jobs within the organization. The practice of green recruitment is one of the major
steps that can be implemented to improve the overall process. With the growing demands of
skilled engineers, this method can be used to deal with the challenge related to recruitment
process. The primary step in this process of selection includes the step of evaluation that is used
to diagnose the effective communication strategy that can be used by the HR department (Derous
& De Fruyt 2016, p.1). With the help of the better communication strategy, it is possible to
connect with more number of potential candidates, who are eligible for the job. It is also essential
to provide the details of the job description that are needed in the process of most cases to attract
the talented engineering candidates. Besides the online websites, it is also essential that the
offline mode of advisements are also published that help to attract the people, who do not enjoy
the use of the technological gadgets.
As several of the interested candidates, apply for the job, it is the duty of the HR manager
to eliminate the candidates, who do not have the level of skills and expertise according to the
description of the job. This is the most vital and primary steps of recruitment. There need to be
certain fixed protocol that can help the HR manager to help in the process of elimination and
selection. It is also the ethical duty of the HR manager of the organization to strictly abide by the
framework that can help to ensure that there is no unfair practice within the business (Rivas
2016).

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In the subsequent process is the step, where the interested candidates are being invited
over phone calls or emails for the interview, which is the main round of selection. Currently the
main issue within the Wood and Grieve engineering firm is due to process of unstructured
interview process that are being implemented in practice by the engineering manager in order to
conduct the interview process. According to Ekwoaba et al. (2015, p.22), with the help of the
structured interview process, it is possible to determine the assessment criteria that are used
within the interview. The structure of the interview should be done on the basis of the skills that
are needed within the engineering firm. Systematic process is used to evaluate the capability of
the candidates. It is also possible to judge upon the behavior and the attitude of the candidates
that is one of the important criteria to estimate the learning potential and determination of the
candidate. It is one of the challenging tasks of the interviewer to evaluate the best capable
candidates as in the recent days of information, all the young job aspirants are smart enough to
express out the skill that they posses. Before the process of interview, it is essential for the firm
to have a round of written aptitude test. This is believed to be one of the important criteria to
access the capability of an engineer.
The overall process of final selection should be based on the average of the score of the
two rounds of aptitude test and interview.
Conclusion
Due to the process of unstructured interview, the Wood and Grieve engineering firm is
currently facing issues due to poor candidates being recruited within the organization. It is the
duty of the HR manager to implement the process of sustainable practice of human resource

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management that can be achieved with the help of the structured process of interview. It is also
recommended to introduce the process of attitude test that is one of the vital steps to better judge
the skill of the engineer.

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Reference
Derous, E. & De Fruyt, F., 2016. Developments in Recruitment and Selection Research.
International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 24(1), pp.1-3.
Ekwoaba, J.O., Ikeije, U.U. & Ufoma, N., 2015. The impact of recruitment and selection criteria
on organizational performance. Global Journal of Human Resource Management, 3(2), pp.22-
23.
Fox, S., 2015. An examination into the importance of recruitment and selection in a business;
should it be considered an internal HR function or outsourced to a specialist? (Doctoral
dissertation, Dublin, National College of Ireland).
Kundu, S.C., Rattan, D., Sheera, V.P. & Gahlawat, N., 2015. RecRuitment and Selection
techniqueS uSed in coRpoRate SectoR: a compaRative Study of indian and multinational
companieS. Journal of Organisation and Human Behaviour, 4(4).
Phillips, J.M. & Gully, S.M., 2015. Strategic staffing. Pearson.
Rivas, R., 2016. International Recruitment and Selection–More than a Simple Extension of
Policies and Practices Across National Borders.
Yaseen, A., 2016. Recruitment and selection process of higher education sector and its impact on
organizational outcomes. International Journal of Human Resource Studies, 5(4), pp.79-94.